Tales (tails?) from the life of Axel, a naughty but lovable wire-haired three year old fox terrier living in Philadelphia, USA. Not an ordinary dog - Axel is very opinionated, especially on issues pertaining to animal welfare and human silliness.

Monday, October 15, 2007

I am always envious when I read my pal Asta's blog- it is always full of wonderful descriptions of dinner parties in New York City, with sumptuous food and great ambience. So I was thrilled to hear Mom's plans for her own dinner party that took place last night. Only two people were invited - you'd think she'd invited ten the way she agonized over what to cook/bake! You see these are Mom's cousins and Mrs Cousin is a fabulous cook/baker - so Mom felt she couldn't serve just anything!

Mom set the table with all her African paraphenalia and wedding presents that she'd hardly had the opportunity to use. Here is the table setting - not sure you can see much - but the beaded placemats are African and the napkins are too. (They call them serviettes in Africa!)

I wasn't much interested in the decor frankly, I was far more interested in the menu! As it was Sunday night, Mom decided on hot pastrami on rye (yum), and three different salads -- green bean/red onion/peppers salad; new fangled potato salad recipe; and a green salad that had yummy avo, big mushrooms, green onion, lettuce, green pepper from our garden and other stuff in it. That all looked quite tasty - though I am not crazy about salads - so what really got my attention was the dessert!!

I watched Mom work hard on it - beating yolks and then whites and doing all sorts of things that needed 3 different bowls and many measurements and chocolate too. When it finally went into the oven, the smells were overwhelmingly tantalizing. I stood guard outside the oven door willing it to open so I could free the cakes from their pans. When they finally came out - wow, they looked good! I tried to jump on the counters to get them. I tried jumping on the dining room table when Mom moved them there. But I gave up when Mom put them on the overturned washbasket on top of the dryer. I mean look at this cake - would you not have tried to eat it!!???

This my friends, is called a Chocolate Blitz Torte. Not sure the picture does it justice. The bottom is choc cake with a layer of merangue. It has chocolate cream in the middle and then another layer of cake and merangue that is decorated with flaked almonds and cinnamon. Oh it is simple delicious. I know 'cos I did get a wee taste - but pig that Mom is (yeah, you wouldn't know it to look at her skinny frame), she ate half the cake!

My consolation prize for being a good boy all evening while the guests were there (Ok, I did get locked behind my puppy gate for part of the evening when I was quote, "being a pest") - was a marrow bone this morning, which I enjoyed almost as much as the blitz torte!